CN111465955A

CN111465955A - Method and apparatus for managing shared vehicles

Info

Publication number: CN111465955A
Application number: CN201780097504.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王占仓; 顾慧; 何颖姣
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2017-12-08
Filing date: 2017-12-08
Publication date: 2020-07-28
Also published as: EP3721397A1; WO2019109340A1; EP3721397A4

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for managing shared vehicles are disclosed. One method comprises the following steps: acquiring identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information comprises an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with a user and the code to a service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; the results of renting the shared vehicle are received.

Description

Method and apparatus for managing shared vehicles

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for managing shared vehicles.

Background

A vehicle sharing system is a service in which vehicles such as bicycles and automobiles can be used for personal use for a fee. The vehicle sharing system allows people to borrow or lease vehicles from parking area a and return the vehicles to parking area B.

However, as the shared vehicle services industry continues to evolve to meet the needs of users, problems have arisen. For example, situations where vehicles are parked randomly or irregularly are more prominent, which may lead to shared vehicle parking congestion/congestion problems. Or random parking, too many bicycles in congested places disturb the traffic order. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a solution for managing shared vehicles.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method for managing shared vehicles is provided. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider and the shared vehicle management node is capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; and receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided for operating a shared vehicle management node capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for managing shared vehicles is provided. The device includes: a processor; and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor, whereby the apparatus is operative to: obtaining identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to a service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; the results of renting the shared vehicle are received.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for managing shared vehicles is provided. The apparatus includes a processor; and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor, whereby the apparatus is operative to: receiving a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a first node of a shared vehicle wireless network, cause the at least one processor to obtain identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to a service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; the results of renting the shared vehicle are received.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to receive a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes: an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a first node of a shared vehicle wireless network, cause the at least one processor to obtain identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to a service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; the results of renting the shared vehicle are received.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to receive a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative system in which some embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

FIG. 2 depicts illustrative elements for a cloud computing environment, according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart depicting a method of obtaining identity information for a shared vehicle to be hired by a user, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting a method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

For purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details or with an equivalent arrangement.

As used herein, the term "wireless network" refers to a network that conforms to any suitable communication standard, such as advanced L TE (L TE-A), L TE, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and the like, moreover, communication between terminal devices and network devices in a wireless network may be performed according to any suitable generation of communication protocols, including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long term evolution (L TE), and/or other suitable first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, future fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, Wireless local area network (W L) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standard, and/or any other suitable wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and/or any other standard currently known or future developed.

The term "network device" refers to a device in a wireless network through which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. Network device refers to a Base Station (BS), an Access Point (AP), or any other suitable device in a wireless network. The BS may be, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), or a gNB, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a Radio Head (RH), a Remote Radio Head (RRH), a relay, a low power node (e.g., femto base station (femto), pico base station (pico)), and so on. Yet another example of a network device may include a multi-standard radio (MSR) radio such as MSR BS, a network controller such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC) or a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a transmission point, a transmission node. More generally, however, a network device may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) that is capable of, configured to, arranged and/or operable to enable and/or provide terminal device access to a wireless network or to provide some service to terminal devices that have access to a wireless network.

For example, and without limitation, a UE may be, for example, a Subscriber Station (SS), a portable subscriber station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). the terminal device may include, but is not limited to, a portable computer, an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, a music storage and playback device, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet computer, a wearable device, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, an image capture terminal device (e.g., a digital camera), a gaming terminal device, a music storage and playback device, a wearable terminal device, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop embedded device (L EE), a device installed to a laptop (L ME), an encryption, a smart device, a USB User Equipment (UE), etc. in the following description, the term "terminal device" may be used instead to transmit or receive information to a particular User Equipment (UE) as intended for example, or as a cooperative for example, a GSM subscriber may be, a GSM subscriber device, a GSM subscriber may be used in an external terminal device, a communication system, a GSM network, or a GSM network, a GSM network.

As used herein, downlink D L transmissions refer to transmissions from a network device to a terminal device, and uplink U L transmissions refer to transmissions in the opposite direction.

References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element may be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element may be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "has," "having," "contains," "containing" and/or "covers," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

Some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As noted above, problems have arisen as more and more shared vehicle service providers continue to evolve. For example, the phenomenon of randomly parked vehicles is more prominent, which may lead to parking congestion/congestion problems for shared vehicles. In addition, shared vehicle service providers (e.g., Ofo and mobile) allow users to simply place rented bicycles anywhere convenient, e.g., randomly parked vehicles may be an obstacle. Furthermore, if a user wants to use the shared vehicle services of one or more shared vehicle service providers, it is inconvenient for the user to require the user to register with the one or more shared vehicle service providers and pay a deposit to each of them. For example, as shared vehicle service providers increase, users may download and install multiple applications from different shared vehicle services and pay a refundable deposit for the different shared vehicle services, which may inconvenience the user and cause the user to pay multiple deposits.

In addition, there are many service providers who can only control their own vehicles, and the traditional independent check for shared vehicle parking congestion is isolated and non-systematic. In general, shared vehicle parking congestion is often caused by parking and mixed parking of many brands of shared vehicles together. In this case, independent parking adjustments are weak and do not address the problem of shared vehicle parking congestion. Shared bicycle parking congestion information cannot be immediately communicated to each end user to prevent further congestion build-up.

To overcome at least one of the above disadvantages or other disadvantages, the present disclosure proposes a system for managing shared vehicles, which may be based on cloud computing.

Fig. 1 depicts an illustrative system in which some embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in fig. 1, system 100 includes a network device 110, such as a cellular base station or radio access point. Network device 110 may refer to a functional element on the network side as compared to a terminal device or UE. For example, network device 110 may include an eNB, home eNode B, femto BS, pico BS, gNB, radio access point, or any other node capable of serving terminal devices such as shared vehicles and UEs in system 100. As is known, a cellular radio system may comprise a network of radio cells, each served by a transmitting station called a cell site or base transceiver station. A radio network provides wireless communication services to a plurality of transceivers, which are mobile in most cases. A network of cooperatively operating network devices allows for wireless services with a greater radio coverage than that provided by a single network device. A single network device may be connected by another network (in many cases a wired network, not shown) that includes additional controllers for resource management and, in some cases, may also access other network systems (e.g., the internet) or Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). Circle 130 schematically indicates the coverage of network device 110.

As shown in fig. 1, the system 100 may also include one or more shared

vehicles

150, 152, 154, 160, 162, 164, and 166. The shared vehicle may include a bicycle, an electric bicycle, an automobile, a hybrid automobile, and an electric automobile. The shared vehicle may be equipped with sensors such as positioning sensors and communication modules. For parking area 180, at least one radio access point 104 may be deployed. For example, a shared vehicle or UE may act as a radio access point. The radio access point may be a fixed access point. The radio access point may act as a gateway that may connect to network device 110. Furthermore, the gateway role may be ignored if there are no gateway devices available in the parking lot/area. For example, the parking lot/area 170 may not have a radio access point. In this case, shared

vehicles

150, 152, 154 in parking lot/area 170 may be connected to network device 110, respectively. The shared vehicle 166 is outside the parking lot/area 170. Parking lots/

areas

170 and 180 may be served by

radio access points

106 and 104, respectively. The

radio access points

106 and 104 are capable of communicating with the shared vehicle and the user's UE, and the parking lot may be shared by one or more shared vehicle service providers. For example, the shared

vehicles

150, 152, 154 in the parking lot/area 170 may belong to different shared vehicle service providers.

As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may further include one or more

terminal devices

190 and 192, each of which may be in operable communication with a network device 110, such as a cellular base station, via

wireless links

121 and 123. additionally,

terminal devices

190 and 192 may also be in communication with a shared vehicle.

terminal devices

190 and 192 may be fixed or mobile

terminal devices

190 and 192 may include, but are not limited to, cellular telephones, smart phones, computers (whether desktop, laptop, or other devices) and mobile devices or terminals, such as cellular network UEs, handheld computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), wearable devices, cameras, set-top boxes, personal media devices, or any combination of the above, which may provide wireless communication functionality and may run any kind of operating system, including, but not limited to, Windows, L inux, UNIX, Android, iOS and variants thereof.

As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may also include a shared vehicle management node 140, which shared vehicle management node 140 may communicate with terminal devices 190, 192, radio access points 104 and shared vehicles 150, 152, 154, 160, 162, 164, and 166 through network device 110 and with one or more shared vehicle service providers 142A, 142B, and 142℃ shared vehicle service providers 142A, 142B, and 142C may provide services such as shared vehicle management, shared vehicle rental, and return and parking accommodation, shared vehicle management node 140 may provide services such as parking lot/area management, user management, acting as a proxy for users to interact with shared vehicle service providers 142A, 142B, and 142C, shared vehicle service provider management, etc. for example, shared vehicle management node 140 may obtain shared vehicle parking information and shared vehicle distribution, and optimize parking areas, manage shared vehicle service providers based on shared vehicle parking information and shared vehicle distribution, and optimize parking areas, manage shared vehicle service providers, the optimization may include optimization of locations of parking areas, optimization of number of parking areas, optimization of shared vehicle service areas, use for a shared vehicle service area management system for which may include, but is not limited to, and may include, optimization of a computing system software sharing a computing system for implementing various types of vehicles such as UNIX, a computing system.

In one embodiment, the shared vehicle management node 140 is implemented by a cloud computing environment. FIG. 2 depicts illustrative elements of a cloud computing environment. The cloud computing environment includes: one or more cloud computing nodes in communication with a computing device (e.g., a mobile phone or smart device, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer). For mobile internet infrastructure, this allows the platform and software to be provided as a service from a cloud computing environment, thereby eliminating the need for each customer to separately maintain such resources. It should be understood that the types of computing devices in fig. 2 are intended to be examples only, and that the cloud computing environment may communicate with any type of computerized device over any type of network. As shown in fig. 2, a set of functional abstraction layers provided by the cloud computing environment of the present disclosure is shown. It should be understood that the components, layers, and functions shown in fig. 2 are intended to be illustrative only, and the disclosure is not limited thereto. As shown in fig. 2, the following layers and corresponding functions may be provided.

The workload layer provides functionality to utilize the cloud computing environment. Examples of workloads and functions that may be provided from this layer include parking congestion checking and reporting; typical/customized parking behavior and status records and warning/alarm broadcasts; analyzing, recording and processing the parking data based on the position; shared bicycle rental transaction recording and processing, and cloud service catalog management.

The management layer may provide exemplary functionality described below.A resource provisioning provides dynamic vehicle parking congestion identification resources and other resources that may be used to perform tasks within the cloud computing environment.A vehicle parking behavior provisioning (provisioning) provides record tracking and broadcasting (when utilizing resources in a cloud computing environment) and shared vehicle rental transactions or history for consumption of these resources.

The virtual layer may provide an abstraction layer from which the following exemplary virtual entities may be provided: virtually sharing bicycle parking records; a virtual judgment system for decision making; a virtual server; virtual storage; virtual networks, including virtual private networks; a virtual application; and a virtual client.

The hardware and software (HW & SW) layers may include hardware and software components. Examples of hardware components include mainframes/mainframes, which are primarily used by cloud service providers for critical applications, bulk data processing; a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture based server; a server equipped with an x86 processor; a blade server system; a storage device; networks and networking components. The software components include web application server software that end users can use to create applications and integrate applications with other applications; and database software, which is a computer program, as defined by the client-server model, that provides shared bicycle behavior database services to other computer programs or computers. The database software supports object relational features and non-relational constructs.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart depicting a method 300 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as

terminal devices

190 and 192 of fig. 1. As such, the apparatus may provide means for performing various portions of the method 300 as well as means for performing other processes in conjunction with other components.

As shown in fig. 3, the method 300 may begin at block 302, where a terminal device obtains identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, where the identity information includes an identity vehicle of a shared service provider and a code of the shared vehicle. For example, the identity information may be obtained from a two-dimensional code, a barcode, an RFID (radio frequency identification), or text. The identity of the service provider may be included in the code of the shared vehicle. In this way, when the user wants to rent the shared bicycle, the user can scan/input the code of the shared bicycle, and then the terminal device can obtain the identity information. Additionally, the identity of the service provider may not be included in the code of the shared vehicle. In this case, the user may enter/select the identity of the service provider.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart depicting a method of obtaining identity information for a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4, at block 302-2, the terminal device receives a message for renting a shared vehicle. For example, the user may open a user interface on their terminal device and press a button/icon for renting a shared vehicle, and then the terminal device receives a first message for renting the shared vehicle. In another example, the user may scan/input identity information of a shared vehicle that the user is about to rent, and then may trigger a message for renting the shared vehicle through this operation.

At block 302-4, the terminal device provides a user interface including information of one or more shared vehicle service providers for selection by a user. For example, the user interface may display a common web portal that includes information for one or more shared vehicle service providers.

At block 302-6, the terminal device receives the identity of the service provider of the shared vehicle selected by the user. For example, the user may select which service provider of the shared vehicle to use, and the terminal device then receives the identity of that service provider.

At block 302-8, the terminal device receives a code sharing the vehicle. For example, in the page of the selected service provider, the user may scan/input the code of the selected shared vehicle, and then the terminal device receives the code of the shared vehicle.

Turning to fig. 3, at block 304, the terminal device sends a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sends a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to a service provider, the identity registered with the service provider, and the shared vehicle management node is capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers. The first lease request may include any other suitable information, such as a user Identity (ID). The identity associated with the user may be registered with the service provider by the user or the shared vehicle management node. For example, a user may register with each or a portion of one or more shared vehicle service providers to obtain a first user ID and with a shared vehicle management node to obtain a second user ID, then the first lease request may include the first user ID and the second user ID, the identity associated with the user being the first user ID. In another example, the user may only register with the shared vehicle management node to obtain the second user ID, and the first lease request may include the second user ID. The shared vehicle management node may register with each or a portion of the one or more shared vehicle service providers to obtain a third user ID and associate the third user ID with the second user ID, i.e., the identity associated with the user is the third user ID. In addition, at least a portion of the content of the lease request may be signed by the user to generate a digital signature. A valid digital signature makes the recipient reasonably confident: the content is created by a known sender, the sender cannot deny that the content has been sent, and the content has not been altered during transmission.

After receiving the first rental request, the shared vehicle management node may act as an agent for the user to interact with the service provider of the selected shared vehicle. For example, when the first lease request includes a first user ID and a second user ID, the shared vehicle management node may know the service provider from the identity of the service provider, send a second lease request including the first user ID and a code of the shared vehicle to the selected service provider, where the first user ID and the code of the shared vehicle may be signed by the user. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may extract the first user ID, the second user ID, the identity information, the type of vehicle, the brand of the service provider, the brand of the UE/vehicle, the date, the parking time, the credit record, the parking location history data, the location data, etc. from the first rental request, bind the second user ID with the first user ID, and then store these pieces of information in the database. As another example, when the first lease request includes the second user ID without the first user ID, the shared vehicle management node may transmit the second lease request including the third user ID and the code of the shared vehicle to the selected service provider, wherein the shared vehicle management node may register with the selected service provider to obtain the third user ID and associate the third user ID with the second user ID, and the third user ID and the code of the shared vehicle may be signed by the shared vehicle management node. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may extract the second user ID and the identity information from the first lease request, bind the second user ID with the third user ID, and store the information in the database.

The shared vehicle management node may receive a result of renting the shared vehicle and transmit the result to the terminal device. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may check the status of the user, such as the user's validity, before sending the second lease request to the shared vehicle service provider. If the user is determined to be an invalid user, the shared vehicle management node may transmit a result indicating that the user is an invalid user to the terminal device. If it is determined that the user has not paid the deposit, the result may include a reminder for payment of the deposit.

At block 306, the terminal device may receive the results of renting the shared vehicle. As described above, the terminal device may receive the result of renting the shared vehicle from the shared vehicle management node. In addition, the terminal device may receive a result of renting the shared vehicle from the selected shared vehicle service provider. For example, the selected shared vehicle service provider may obtain the first user ID from the second rental request and send the rental result of the shared vehicle to the terminal device associated with the first user ID.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method 500 according to embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be performed at a device, such as

terminal devices

190 and 192 of fig. 1. As such, the apparatus may provide means for performing various portions of the method 500 as well as means for performing other processes in conjunction with other components.

As shown in fig. 5, the method 500 may begin at block 502, where the terminal device receives a return request for returning the shared vehicle, where the return request includes identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle. The identity information may be stored on the terminal device when the user rents the shared vehicle. The location data may be returned shared vehicle location data, which may be obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS), a beidou navigation system, and a base station location system of the terminal device or the returned shared vehicle. The location data may be location data such as a parking ID of a parking lot/area, which may be sensed by the terminal device or scanned/input by the user. For example, a parking lot/area may be deployed with a radio access point that may periodically broadcast the ID of the parking lot/area. Alternatively, the user may scan a barcode of the ID of the parking lot/area by using the terminal device.

At block 504, the terminal device may send a return request to the shared vehicle management node. The return request may include any suitable information, such as a user Identity (ID). For example, the return request may include the first user ID and the second user ID as described above. As another example, the return request may include the second user ID as described above. Additionally, at least a portion of the content of the return request may be signed by the user to generate a digital signature.

After receiving the return request, the shared vehicle management node may process the return request. For example, the shared vehicle management node may act as an agent for the user to interact with the service provider of the returned shared vehicle. For example, when the shared vehicle management node further requests to include a first user ID and a second user ID, the shared vehicle management node may send another return request including the first user ID, the returned location data of the shared vehicle, and the code to the service provider, where the first user ID, the location data of the shared vehicle, and the code may be signed by the user. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may extract the first user ID, the second user ID, the identity information, the type of vehicle, the brand of the service provider, the brand of the UE/vehicle, the date, the parking time, the credit record, the parking location history data, the location data, and the like from the return request and then store the information. As another example, when the shared vehicle management node further requests to include the second user ID without the first user ID, the shared vehicle management node may send another return request including the third user ID, the location data of the shared vehicle, and the code to the service provider, wherein the shared vehicle management node may sign the third user ID, the location data of the shared vehicle, and the code, as described above, and the third user ID may be registered by the shared vehicle management node to the shared vehicle service provider.

The shared vehicle management node may receive a result of returning the shared vehicle from the selected shared vehicle service provider and transmit the result to the terminal device. In addition, if the user is registered only with the shared vehicle management node, not with the selected shared vehicle service provider, the shared vehicle management node may process the received result, generate billing information, and transmit the result including the billing information to the terminal device.

At block 506, the terminal device may receive the result of returning the shared vehicle. The results may include any suitable information, such as whether returning the shared vehicle was successful, reason for failure, advertising information. As described above, the terminal device may receive the result from the shared vehicle management node. Additionally, the terminal device may receive the results from the shared vehicle service provider. For example, the shared vehicle service provider may obtain the first user ID from the return request and send the result of returning the shared vehicle to the terminal device associated with the first user ID.

In an embodiment, the result of returning the shared vehicle is generated based on a congestion status of the parking lot/area associated with the location data, the result of returning the shared vehicle including at least one of the following information: allowing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot when the parking lot is not congested; if the parking lot/area is congested, refusing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot would charge more; requesting a user of the shared vehicle to perform a specific action if the parking lot/area is congested, if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot; and if the parking lot/area is congested, suggesting at least one nearby other parking lot in which the shared vehicle can be parked. As an example, if a parking lot/area is congested, the result may include the following information: a double fee is charged for parking the incoming shared vehicle in the parking lot/area and/or if the incoming shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot/area, the user of the incoming shared vehicle is asked to display an advertisement.

For example, when the terminal device receives the result of returning the shared vehicle, it may output it to the user of the terminal device, e.g., through a display or speaker, or send it to the user's wearable bluetooth device through a bluetooth radio link or any other suitable means. Then, if the parking lot/area is not congested, the user can obtain a result of returning the shared vehicle and perform an action such as parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area. If the parking lot/area is congested and the shared vehicle is rejected to be parked in the parking lot/area, the shared vehicle cannot be locked when the user attempts to park the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area. If the parking lot/area is congested and the result of returning the shared vehicle includes information that parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area is charged twice, the user will be charged twice when the user insists on parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area.

The congestion status may be determined in any suitable manner. For example, the congestion status may be determined based on a comparison of the number of current vehicles in a parking lot/area or the number of current vehicles belonging to the same shared vehicle service provider to a threshold. The threshold may be determined in any suitable manner. For example, the threshold may be determined by big data analysis of shared vehicle parking information. The threshold may be determined based on shared vehicle parking information and a distribution of rented shared vehicles. The threshold may be determined by joint optimization of the parking lots/areas. In addition, the threshold may be dynamically adjusted. For example, the threshold may be adjusted for different times, such as peak and off-peak times. The threshold may be set to zero when emergency conditions (e.g., accidents and traffic control) around the parking area cause the vehicle to no longer be parked in the parking area. As another example, if many vehicles are parked in a parking area and few vehicles are parked in an adjacent parking area, the threshold for that parking area may be decreased and the threshold for that adjacent parking area may be increased. In addition, different thresholds may be assigned to different shared vehicle service providers within a parking area.

In another example, the congestion status may be determined based on historical information of parking areas. For example, if the history information of the parking area indicates that the parking area is definitely congested at 8 to 9 am, the congestion state may be determined to be 8 to 9 am congestion. The congestion status may be determined by the shared vehicle management node, the radio access point, or the first node, as will be described in detail below. By using the history information, parking congestion can be predicted and preventive action can be performed in advance. Additionally, the congestion status may be set by the shared vehicle service provider.

Fig. 6 is a flow chart depicting a method 600, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as

terminal devices

190 and 192 of fig. 1, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As for some parts that have been described in the above embodiments, detailed description thereof is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

In this embodiment, the transaction data set needs to be corrected. For example, the location data obtained from the base station positioning system may be inaccurate, or inconsistent with the user's historical route information.

At block 602, the terminal device receives a correction request from the shared vehicle management node for a user to correct the transaction data set. The transaction data set may include the identity of the UE/vehicle, the type of vehicle, the code of the shared vehicle, the brand of the service provider, the brand of the UE/vehicle, the date, the parking time, the credit record, parking location history data, location data, and the like. The transaction data set may be compared to an extracted transaction data set obtained from a database containing historical information of the user. For example, if the location data indicates that the user returned the shared vehicle at location a at 8:00am, and the location data extracted from the database indicates that the user normally returned the shared vehicle at location B at 8:00am, the shared vehicle management node may send a correction request for the user to correct the location data. Similarly, the shared vehicle management node may send a correction request for the user to correct any other parameters in the transaction data set.

At block 604, the terminal device sends a correction response to the shared vehicle management node. The corrected response may include any suitable information, such as the corrected transaction data set or an indication that the transaction data set is correct. For example, when the correction request includes at least one estimated location, the user may select one from the at least one estimated location, or the user may input a new location, and the correction response may include the selected/input location. If the user believes the transaction data set is correct, the corrective response may include an indication that the transaction data set is correct.

In one example, a shared vehicle may be configured to receive a request for a location of a vehicle, and to transmit the request to a cloud computing environment, the request may include a location of the vehicle, a location of the vehicle service provider, a brand of the vehicle, a location of the vehicle service provider, a location of the vehicle, a user, a location of the vehicle, a user.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart depicting a method 700, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as

terminal devices

Blocks

704, 706, and 708 are similar to

blocks

502, 504, and 506.

At block 702, a terminal device receives congestion prediction information for at least one parking lot/area associated with a user. The parking lot/area associated with the user may be determined in various ways. For example, the shared vehicle management node may determine at least one parking lot/area associated with the user by using the current location of the user, which may be transmitted to the shared vehicle management node by the terminal device. As another example, the shared vehicle management node may learn at least one parking lot/area associated with the user from the user's historical information. For example, if the user's history information indicates that the user always rents a shared vehicle at parking lot a and returns the shared vehicle at parking lot B, the shared vehicle management node may learn that location B is a parking lot/area associated with the user. Then, the shared vehicle management node may predict the congestion level and the congestion tendency of the parking lot/area associated with the user, for example, based on the historical congestion information of the parking lot/area, and transmit them to the terminal device.

Fig. 8 is a flow chart depicting a method 800, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as the shared vehicle management node 140 of fig. 1, wherein the shared vehicle management node 140 is capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As such, the apparatus may provide means for performing various portions of the method 800 as well as means for performing other processes in conjunction with other components. As for some parts that have been described in the above embodiments, detailed description thereof is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

As shown in fig. 8, method 800 may begin at block 802, where a shared vehicle management node receives a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, where the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle.

At block 804, the shared vehicle management node sends a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider. As described above, the first lease request received from the terminal device may include the first user ID and the second user ID, the shared vehicle management node may know the service provider from the identity of the service provider, and transmit the second lease request to the service provider, the second lease request including: a first user ID and a code of the shared vehicle, wherein the first user ID and the code of the shared vehicle may be signed by the user. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may extract the first user ID, the second user ID, the identity information, the type of vehicle, the brand of the service provider, the brand of the UE/vehicle, the date, the parking time, the credit record, the parking location history data, the location data, etc. from the rental request and then store these information in the database. As another example, when the first lease request received from the terminal device includes the second user ID but does not have the first user ID, the shared vehicle management node may transmit the second lease request including the third user ID and the code of the shared vehicle to the selected service provider, wherein the shared vehicle management node may register with the service provider to obtain the third user ID, and the third user ID and the code of the shared vehicle may be signed by the shared vehicle management node. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may extract the second user ID, the identity information, the type of vehicle, the brand of the service provider, the brand of the UE/vehicle, the date, the parking time, the credit record, the parking location history data, the location data, etc. from the lease request, bind the second user ID with the third user ID, and store these information in the database.

At block 806, the shared vehicle management node may receive the results of leasing the shared vehicle, which may be transmitted to the terminal device at block 808. In addition, the shared vehicle management node may check the status of the user, such as the user's validity, before sending the second lease request to the service provider. If the user is determined to be an invalid user, the shared vehicle management node may transmit a result indicating that the user is an invalid user to the terminal device. If it is determined that the user has not paid the deposit, the result may include a reminder for payment of the deposit.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart depicting a method 900 according to embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as the shared vehicle management node of fig. 1. As for some parts that have been described in the above embodiments, detailed description thereof is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

As shown in fig. 9, method 900 may begin at block 902, where a shared vehicle management node receives a return request from a terminal device for returning a shared vehicle, where the return request includes identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle. As described above, the position data may be returned position data of the shared vehicle or position data of the parking lot/area.

At block 904, the shared vehicle management node processes the return request to generate a result of returning the shared vehicle. For example, the shared vehicle management node may act as an agent for the user to interact with the service provider of the shared vehicle. For example, when the shared vehicle management node further requests to include the first user ID and the second user ID, the shared vehicle management node may send a return request including the first user ID, the returned location data of the shared vehicle, and the code to the service provider. As another example, when the shared vehicle management node further requests to include the second user ID without the first user ID, the shared vehicle management node may send a return request including the third user ID, the location data of the shared vehicle, and the code to the service provider, wherein the shared vehicle management node may sign the third user ID, the location data of the shared vehicle, and the code. The shared vehicle management node may receive a result of returning the shared vehicle from the shared vehicle service provider. In addition, if the user is registered only in the shared vehicle management node, but not in the shared vehicle service provider, the shared vehicle management node may obtain billing information from the result received by the shared vehicle service provider and charge the user based on the billing information. The result of returning the shared vehicle may include charging information generated by the shared vehicle management node.

At block 906, the shared vehicle management node may send the generated results to the terminal device. The generated results may include any suitable information, such as whether returning the shared vehicle was successful, reasons for failure, billing information, and advertising information.

In one embodiment, the result of returning the shared vehicle may be generated based on a congestion status of a parking lot associated with the location data. The result of returning the shared vehicle includes at least one of the following information: allowing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot when the parking lot is not congested; if the parking lot/area is congested, refusing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot would charge more; requesting a user of the shared vehicle to perform a specific action if the parking lot/area is congested, if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot; and if the parking lot/area is congested, suggesting at least one nearby other parking lot in which the shared vehicle can be parked. As an example, if a parking lot/area is congested, the result may include the following information: if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot, the users of the shared vehicle are asked to display an advertisement. The congestion status may be determined in any suitable manner as described above.

As an example, the shared vehicle management node obtains target location metadata (e.g., identity of UE/vehicle, vehicle type, serial number, date, collection time, location); selecting key features by using shared vehicle feature parameters (e.g., UE/vehicle identity, vehicle type, serial number, date, collection time, location); obtaining confirmed vehicle position-related information; retrieving historical data from a database of a cloud network; evaluating a level of congestion and predicting a congestion trend based on the database input; comparing the congestion level to a predefined threshold (number of vehicles allowed in the area) to determine the current congestion level; if the shared vehicle management node judges congestion, one of the following congestion processing procedures is carried out: no parking is allowed, if so, more money is collected; or suggest a free parking area near this congested area.

As yet another example, the UE or the shared vehicle reports its location to the shared vehicle management node. The shared vehicle management node will extract the UE/shared vehicle history data from the database of the cloud computing environment and also extract data of possible nearby parking lots. The shared vehicle management node uses different keywords (keys) for data resampling to give better advice about the parking lot.

As yet another example, the target location of the shared vehicle to be parked is obtained using known techniques (e.g., using GPS/beidou or a location sensor based on RF RSSI levels). After the target position of the shared bicycle to be parked is obtained, the shared vehicle management node extracts key characteristic parameters of the target position of the shared vehicle. The definition of the characteristic parameters is defined based on the application scenario. Subsequently, when the bicycle parking position is obtained, metadata of the target position (e.g., characteristic parameters, time, position and recording parameters (e.g., date), collection time, new or device type for long-term use, collection) is extracted. Depending on the way in which the position is obtained or according to various methods the position is to be processed, additional pre-processing of the target position is suggested or even required. The shared vehicle management node determines whether the target location contains the parking congestion feature parameter by referring to corresponding similar reference location information available from the database of the cloud computing environment, and if so, how many parking congestion parameters are. Accordingly, the shared vehicle management node retrieves similar reference vehicle parking position information from the database of the cloud computing environment by referring to the characteristic parameters of the target position of the shared vehicle being checked. For example, the bounding box of the target location is identified and bound to its associated feature parameters, such as a serial number, a brand of bicycle service provider, and the like. The bounding box may be coextensive with the boundaries of the target location, or may define a region of interest within the target location where the vehicle under examination is parked. The feature parameters of the bounding box of the target location may be automatically identified from metadata accompanying the target location. The feature parameters of the bounding box are used to retrieve similar reference locations (which may be places where the vehicle is parked congested) or the same feature parameters of the bounding box are included. The shared vehicle management node extracts characteristic parameters of the checked target position corresponding to the similar reference position in the database; a similar reference location from the cloud computing environment is then retrieved from the database. The shared vehicle management node automatically matches at least one feature of the target location under inspection by applying an optimized feature matching algorithm, wherein the feature in the target location under inspection matches a consistent feature in a similar reference location from the database. Characteristic parameters that are common between the target location under examination and similar reference locations tend to match well, while characteristics that are not common between the target location and the reference locations will not match well. Feature matching takes advantage of the features of feature matching statistics that tend to match very poorly with vehicle parking congestion feature parameters. The probability of existence is automatically determined for each suspect feature in the target location under examination based on feature matching statistics. And generating a probability coefficient based on the existence probability of the bicycle parking congestion feature of each feature box in the target position in the inspection. Using the probability coefficients, an overall confidence level is automatically determined, the overall confidence level representing the ratio of the high probability bicycle parking congestion feature to the total number of features for the target location under examination. The confidence level may be automatically calculated. If the result of the overall confidence is below a certain level, the target position and the state of the vehicle parking may be considered to be substantially parking congestion. Whether a value is "high" or "low" may be determined by reference to a previously established threshold or other parameter. The target position in such a check is a candidate for updating the vehicle parking congestion database. The shared vehicle management node specifies that the processed target position is included in the vehicle parking congestion database. The processed target position may be included in a vehicle parking congestion database. Finally, for each processed target location and characteristic of shark (sharking) vehicle parking, a unique ID may be assigned for indexing. Similar characteristic parameters of vehicle parking congestion may be accumulated and classified for the next inspection process.

Fig. 10 is a flow chart depicting a method 1000, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as the shared vehicle management node 140 of fig. 1, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As for some parts that have been described in the above embodiments, detailed description thereof is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

At block 1002, the shared vehicle management node determines whether the transaction data set needs to be corrected. The transaction data set may include identity information, vehicle type, brand of service provider, brand of UE/vehicle, date, parking time, credit records, parking location history data, location data, and the like. If the shared vehicle management node determines that the location data is obtained from the base station location system, the shared vehicle management node may ask the user to provide GPS location data.

In one embodiment, the shared vehicle management node may estimate a transaction data set for the returned shared vehicle; comparing the estimated dataset with feature data in a database; based on the comparison, it is determined whether the transaction data set requires correction. For example, if the shared vehicle management node determines that the location data does not coincide with the user's historical route information, the shared vehicle management node may request the terminal device or the service provider to correct the location data. As another example, the transaction data set may be compared to a historical transaction data set retrieved from a database containing historical information of the user, and based on the comparison, a determination may be made as to whether the transaction data set needs to be corrected.

In response to determining that the transaction data set needs to be corrected, the shared vehicle management node may send a correction request to the terminal device or service provider at block 1004 and receive a correction response from the terminal device or shared vehicle service provider at block 1006.

Fig. 11 is a flow chart depicting a method 1100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure, which may be performed at an apparatus, such as the shared vehicle management node 140 of fig. 1. As for some parts that have been described in the above embodiments, detailed description thereof is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

At block 1102, the shared vehicle management node retrieves data associated with at least one parking lot/area associated with the user. The parking lot/area associated with the user may be determined in various ways as described above. The data may include real-time and/or historical shared vehicle parking information, location and distribution of rented shared vehicles, traffic events, habits and behaviors of shared vehicle users, seasonal changes, public events, traffic controls, and the like.

At block 1104, the shared vehicle management node predicts a congestion level and a congestion tendency for at least one parking lot/area based on the data. For example, the shared vehicle management node may perform big data analysis on the retrieved data to predict congestion levels and congestion trends. When an emergency such as traffic control around a parking area causes the vehicle to no longer be parked in the parking area and traffic control will continue from 8:00AM to 9:00AM, then the congestion tendency may be predicted to be congestion from 8:00AM to 9:00 AM. As another example, the shared vehicle management node may obtain metadata for the target parking lot/area (e.g., identity of UE/vehicle, vehicle type, serial number, date, collection time, location), select key features by using shared vehicle feature parameters (e.g., identity of UE/vehicle, vehicle type, serial number, date, collection time, location), retrieve historic parking lot/area data from the shared vehicle management node's database, predict congestion levels and congestion trends based on the historic parking lot/area data, e.g., predict congestion levels and congestion trends by comparing to predetermined thresholds (e.g., number of vehicles allowed in parking lot/area).

At block 1106, the shared vehicle management node sends the congestion level and the congestion tendency to the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the shared vehicle management node may optimize at least one parking lot/area by performing big data analysis on data associated with the at least one parking lot/area. The data may include real-time and/or historical shared vehicle parking information, location and distribution of rented shared vehicles, traffic events, habits and behaviors of shared vehicle users, seasonal changes, public events, traffic controls, and the like. The optimization may include optimization of the location of parking areas, optimization of the number of parking areas, threshold optimization of different shared vehicle service providers within a parking area, and the like. For example, the shared vehicle management node may obtain shared vehicle parking information and a distribution of rented shared vehicles, and optimize the location of the parking area based on the shared vehicle parking information and the distribution of shared vehicles.

Fig. 12 depicts an apparatus capable of managing shared vehicles as described above, wherein the apparatus may be implemented by or included in a first node of a parking lot/area. As shown in fig. 12, the apparatus 1200 includes a processing device 1204, a memory 1205 and a transceiver 1201 in operable communication with the processor 1204. The transceiver 1201 includes at least one transmitter 1202 and at least one receiver 1203. Although only one processor is shown in FIG. 12, the processing device 1204 may include one or more processors or multi-core processor(s). Additionally, the processing device 1204 may also include a cache to facilitate processing operations.

Computer-executable instructions may be loaded into memory 1205, which when executed by processing device 1204, cause device 1200 to implement the methods for managing shared vehicles described above. In particular, the computer-executable instructions may cause apparatus 1200 to obtain identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; the results of renting the shared vehicle are received.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 is further configured to receive a message for renting a shared vehicle; providing a user interface including information of one or more shared vehicle service providers for selection by a user; receiving an identity of a service provider selected by a user; a code is received to share a vehicle.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 is further configured to receive a return request for returning the shared vehicle, wherein the return request includes identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle; sending the return request to the shared vehicle management node; a result of returning the shared vehicle is received.

In one embodiment, the result of returning the shared vehicle is generated based on a congestion state of the parking lot/area associated with the location data, the result of returning the shared vehicle including at least one of the following information: if the parking lot/area is not congested, allowing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, refusing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area will be charged more fee; requesting a user of the shared vehicle to perform a specific action if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot/area if the parking lot/area is congested; and if the parking lot/area is congested, suggesting at least one nearby other parking lot/area in which the shared vehicle can be parked.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 is further configured to receive a correction request for a user to correct the transaction data set from the shared vehicle management node; and sending a correction response to the shared vehicle management node.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 is further configured to receive congestion prediction information for at least one parking lot/area associated with the user.

In one embodiment, a shared vehicle management node is implemented on a cloud computing environment, providing at least one cloud service from at least one cloud node in the cloud computing environment, the at least one cloud service comprising at least one of: parking congestion check and report; typical/customized parking behavior and status records and warning/alarm broadcasts; analyzing, recording and processing the vehicle parking data based on the position; shared vehicle rental transaction recording and processing; and managing a cloud service directory.

In one embodiment, a parking lot/area is served by at least one radio access point capable of communicating with a shared vehicle and a user's terminal device, the parking lot being shared by one or more shared vehicle service providers.

In one embodiment, the identity is registered with the service provider by the shared vehicle management node, and the user registers with the shared vehicle management node to obtain a user identity, the user identity being associated with the identity.

Fig. 13 depicts an apparatus capable of managing shared vehicles as described above, wherein the apparatus may be implemented by or included in a first node of a parking lot/area. As shown in fig. 13, the apparatus 1300 includes a processing device 1304, a memory 1305, and a transceiver 1301 in operative communication with the processor 1304. The transceiver 1301 includes at least one transmitter 1302 and at least one receiver 1303. Although only one processor is shown in fig. 13, the processing device 1304 may include one or more processors or multi-core processor(s). Additionally, the processing device 1304 can also include a cache to facilitate processing operations.

The computer-executable instructions may be loaded into the memory 1305, which when executed by the processing device 1304, cause the apparatus 1300 to implement the methods for managing shared vehicles described above. In particular, the computer-executable instructions may cause apparatus 1300 to receive a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

In one embodiment, apparatus 1300 is further configured to receive a return request from the terminal device for returning the shared vehicle, wherein the return request includes identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle; processing the request to return to generate a result of returning the shared vehicle; and sending the generated result to the terminal equipment.

In one embodiment, the result of returning the shared vehicle is generated based on the congestion status of the parking lot/area associated with the location data, the result of returning the shared vehicle including at least one of the following information: if the parking lot/area is not congested, allowing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, refusing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot; if the parking lot/area is congested, parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area will be charged more fee; requesting a user of the shared vehicle to perform a specific action if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot/area if the parking lot/area is congested; and if the parking lot/area is congested, suggesting at least one nearby other parking lot/area in which the shared vehicle can be parked.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1300 is further configured to determine whether the transaction data set needs to be corrected, send a correction request to the terminal device or the service provider in response to determining that the transaction data set needs to be corrected, receive a correction response from the terminal device or the shared vehicle service provider.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1300 is further configured to estimate a transaction data set of the returned shared vehicle; comparing the estimated dataset with feature data in a database; based on the comparison, it is determined whether the transaction data set requires correction.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1300 is further configured to retrieve data associated with at least one parking lot/area associated with the user; predicting a congestion level and a congestion tendency of at least one parking lot/area from the data; and sending the congestion level and the congestion tendency to the terminal equipment.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1300 is further configured to optimize at least one parking lot/area by performing big data analysis on data associated with the at least one parking lot/area.

In one embodiment, a parking lot is served by at least one radio access point capable of communicating with a shared vehicle and a user's terminal device, the parking lot being shared by one or more shared vehicle service providers.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus capable of implementing the method for managing shared vehicles as described above, wherein the apparatus may be implemented by or included in a terminal device.

The apparatus may include: an obtaining unit configured to obtain identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; a sending unit configured to send a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered in the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; a receiving unit configured to receive a rental result of the shared vehicle.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a receiving unit configured to receive a message for renting a shared vehicle; a providing unit configured to provide a user interface including information of one or more shared vehicle service providers for selection by a user; a receiving unit further configured to receive an identity of a service provider selected by a user; and receiving a code to share the vehicle.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a receiving unit further configured to receive a return request for returning the shared vehicle, wherein the return request includes identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle; the sending unit is further configured to send the return request to the shared vehicle management node; a receiving unit further configured to receive a result of returning the shared vehicle.

In one embodiment, the receiving unit is further configured to receive a correction request for a user to correct the transaction data set from the shared vehicle management node; a transmitting unit further configured to transmit the correction response to the shared vehicle management node.

In one embodiment, the receiving unit is further configured to receive congestion prediction information of at least one parking lot/area associated with the user.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus capable of implementing the method for managing shared vehicles as described above, wherein the apparatus may be implemented by or included in a shared vehicle management node.

The device includes: a receiving unit configured to receive a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle; a transmitting unit configured to transmit a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered in the service provider; a receiving unit further configured to receive a rental result of the shared vehicle from the service provider; and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a receiving unit further configured to receive a return request for returning the shared vehicle from the terminal device, wherein the return request includes the identification information and the position data associated with the shared vehicle; a processing unit configured to process the return request to generate a return result of the shared vehicle; the transmission unit is further configured to transmit the generated result to the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a determination unit configured to determine whether the transaction data set needs to be corrected, the transmission unit further configured to: in response to determining that the transaction data set needs to be corrected, a correction request is sent to the terminal device or the service provider, and the receiving unit is further configured to receive a correction response from the terminal device or the shared vehicle service provider.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: an estimating unit configured to estimate a transaction data set of the returned shared vehicle; and a comparison unit configured to compare the estimated data set with the feature data in the database; a determination unit configured to determine whether correction of the transaction data set is required based on the comparison.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: an obtaining unit configured to obtain data associated with at least one parking lot/area associated with a user; a prediction unit configured to predict a congestion level and a congestion tendency of the at least one parking lot/area based on the data; the transmitting unit is further configured to transmit the congestion level and the congestion tendency to the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: an optimization unit configured to optimize at least one parking lot/area by performing big data analysis on data associated with the at least one parking lot/area.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program instructions stored therein, the computer-executable instructions configured to, when executed, cause an apparatus to operate as described above.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method as described above.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may have the following advantages. The embodiment of the disclosure can save local labor resources for managing parking congestion problems through remote decision-making, and can prevent shared vehicle parking congestion. The solution of the embodiment of the invention is a low-cost cloud plus radio network particularly suitable for shared vehicle applications, and the dynamic control and management of shared vehicles can adjust parking strategies in real time and adjust parking behaviors of shared bicycles. The embodiment of the present disclosure realizes real intelligent parking. The embodiment of the invention adopts a low-power consumption Internet of things (IoT) sensor, which can save a large amount of energy, and is more beneficial to shared vehicle maintenance. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a unified control system that can communicate decisions to each node (vehicle) that can share parking conditions to other nodes and to a shared vehicle management node at the same time. Embodiments of the present disclosure may monitor multiple incoming shared vehicles to be parked, determining in advance whether they will cause local parking congestion for prevention. Autonomous parking congestion prevention may be achieved through automatic decision making of vehicle lockout and alerts for parking congestion. Solutions and decisions may be made automatically to prevent shared vehicle congestion situations. Embodiments of the present disclosure may coordinate multiple shared vehicle service providers to collectively address vehicle congestion. Embodiments of the present disclosure may enable installation of one APP on a user's UE to use services of one or more shared vehicle service providers. Using a common user portal, a user can rent and return shared vehicles by scanning vehicle codes. Both the user's UE and the shared vehicle may automatically connect to the wireless AP. A radio access point serves a parking lot that can be shared by shared vehicles of multiple service providers. The radio AP may report the number of parked vehicles to a shared vehicle management node, which may interact with one or more shared vehicle service providers.

Note that any components of the network device and the terminal device may be implemented as hardware modules or software modules. In the case of software modules, they may be embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium. For example, all software modules (or any subset thereof) may be on the same medium, or each software module may be on a different medium. These software modules may be run on a hardware processor, for example. The method steps may then be performed using different software modules as described above running on a hardware processor.

Such programs may be presented in virtually any programming language or environment, including, for example, C/C + +, Fortran, COBO L L, assembly language, markup language (e.g., HTM L L L), and the like, as well as object-oriented environments such as, for example, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java (including J2ME, Java Beans, and the like), Binary Runtime Environment (BREW), and the like.

The terms "memory" and "storage device" are intended to include, without limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the memory or storage device include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In any case, it should be understood that the components illustrated herein may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, or combinations thereof, e.g., Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), functional circuits, appropriately programmed general purpose digital computers with associated memory, and the like. Given the teachings of the present disclosure provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the related art will be able to contemplate other implementations of the components of the present disclosure.

The description of the various embodiments has been presented for purposes of illustration but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments.

Claims

1. A method (300, 400, 500, 600, 700) for managing shared vehicles, comprising:

obtaining (302) identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, the identity information comprising an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle;

sending (304) a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; and

a result of leasing the shared vehicle is received (306).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user comprises:

receiving (302-2) a message for renting a shared vehicle;

providing (302-4) a user interface including information of the one or more shared vehicle service providers for selection by a user;

receiving (302-6) an identity of the service provider selected by the user; and

receiving (302-8) a code of the shared vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising

Receiving (502) a return request for returning the shared vehicle, wherein the return request includes the identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle;

sending (504) the return request to the shared vehicle management node;

results of returning the shared vehicle are received (506).

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the result of returning the shared vehicle is generated based on a congestion status of a parking lot/area associated with the location data, the result of returning the shared vehicle including at least one of:

allowing the shared vehicle to park in the parking lot if the parking lot/area is not congested;

if the parking lot/area is congested, rejecting the shared vehicle from parking in the parking lot;

if the parking lot/area is congested, parking the shared vehicle in the parking lot/area will be charged more fee;

requesting the user of the shared vehicle to perform a specific action if the parking lot/area is congested, if the shared vehicle is parked in the parking lot/area; and

if the parking lot/area is congested, suggesting at least one other nearby parking lot/area in which the shared vehicle can be parked.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the congestion status is determined based on a comparison of a threshold and a number of current vehicles in the parking lot/area or a number of current vehicles belonging to the same shared vehicle service provider as the returned shared vehicle.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, further comprising

Receiving (602), from the shared vehicle management node, a correction request for the user to correct the transaction data set; and

sending (604) a correction response to the shared vehicle management node.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6, further comprising:

congestion prediction information for at least one parking lot/area associated with the user is received (702).

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the shared vehicle management node is implemented on a cloud computing environment, providing at least one cloud service from at least one cloud node in the cloud computing environment, the at least one cloud service comprising at least one of: parking congestion check and report; typical/customized parking behavior and status records and warning/alarm broadcasts; analyzing, recording and processing the vehicle parking data based on the position; shared vehicle rental transaction recording and processing; and managing a cloud service directory.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the parking lot/area is served by at least one radio access point capable of communicating with the shared vehicle and the user's terminal device, the parking lot being shared by the one or more shared vehicle service providers.

10. The method of any of claims 1-9, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider by the shared vehicle management node, the user registering with the shared vehicle management node to obtain a user identity, the user identity being associated with the identity.

11. A method (800, 900, 1000) for operating a shared vehicle management node, comprising:

receiving (802) a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle;

sending (804) a second lease request to the service provider, the second lease request comprising the identity associated with the user and the code, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; and

receiving (806) results of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and

and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising

Receiving (902), from the terminal device, a return request for returning the shared vehicle, wherein the return request comprises identity information and location data associated with the shared vehicle;

processing (904) the return request to generate a result of returning the shared vehicle; and

-sending (906) the generated result to the terminal device.

13. The method of claim 11, the result of returning the shared vehicle is generated based on a congestion status of a parking lot/area associated with the location data, the result of returning the shared vehicle including at least one of:

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the congestion status is determined based on a comparison of a threshold and a number of current vehicles in the parking lot/area or a number of current vehicles belonging to the same shared vehicle service provider as the returned shared vehicle.

15. The method of any of claims 11 to 14, further comprising

Determining (1002) whether a correction to the transaction data set is required;

in response to determining that the transaction data set needs to be corrected, sending (1004) a correction request to the terminal device or the service provider and receiving (1006) a correction response from the terminal device or the shared vehicle service provider.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the transaction data set requires correction comprises:

estimating a transaction data set for the returned shared vehicle;

comparing the estimated dataset to feature data in a database; and

based on the comparison, it is determined whether the transaction data set needs to be corrected.

17. The method according to any one of claims 11-16, further comprising:

retrieving (1102) data associated with at least one parking lot/area associated with the user;

predicting (1104) a congestion level and a congestion tendency of the at least one parking lot/area based on the data; and

-sending (1106) the congestion level and the congestion tendency to the terminal device.

18. The method of any of claims 11-17, wherein the shared vehicle management node is implemented on a cloud computing environment, providing at least one cloud service from at least one cloud node in the cloud computing environment, the at least one cloud service comprising at least one of: parking congestion check and report; typical/customized parking behavior and status records and warning/alarm broadcasts; analyzing, recording and processing the vehicle parking data based on the position; shared vehicle rental transaction recording and processing; and managing a cloud service directory.

19. The method of any of claims 11 to 18, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider by the shared vehicle management node, the user registering with the shared vehicle management node to obtain a user identity, the user identity being associated with the identity.

20. The method of any of claims 11-19, wherein the parking lot is served by at least one radio access point capable of communicating with the shared vehicle and the user's terminal device, the parking lot being shared by the one or more shared vehicle service providers.

21. The method according to any one of claims 11-20, further comprising:

optimizing the at least one parking lot/area by performing big data analysis on data associated with the at least one parking lot/area.

22. An apparatus (1200) for managing shared vehicles, comprising:

a processor (1204); and

a memory (1205), the memory (1205) containing instructions executable by the processor (1204), whereby the apparatus (1200) is configured to:

obtaining identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, the identity information including an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle;

sending a first lease request including the identity information to a shared vehicle management node, the shared vehicle management node sending a second lease request including an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider, the shared vehicle management node being capable of interacting with one or more shared vehicle service providers; and

a result of leasing the shared vehicle is received.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the device is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-10.

24. An apparatus (1300) for managing shared vehicles, comprising:

a processor (1304); and

a memory (1305), the memory (1305) containing instructions executable by the processor (1304), whereby the apparatus (1300) is configured to:

receiving a first rental request from a terminal device, the first rental request including identity information of a shared vehicle to be rented by a user, wherein the identity information includes an identity of a service provider of the shared vehicle and a code of the shared vehicle;

sending a second lease request comprising an identity associated with the user and the code to the service provider, wherein the identity is registered with the service provider; and

receiving a result of renting the shared vehicle from the service provider; and

and sending the result to the terminal equipment.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the device is configured to perform the method of any of claims 11 to 21.

26. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 21.

27. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 21.